The Colorado Avalanche had their eyes on a major comeback, but fell just short in a 3-2 defeat against the Phoenix Coyotes on Thursday night. Colorado got behind early and essentially allowed Phoenix to pull away, but the Avalanche came back in the third period to make things interesting.
Trailing 3-0 after two periods, it seemed like Avalanche probably would be walking away with a defeat on Thursday. But after a somewhat quick goal just a few minutes into the period by Ryan O'Reilly (his 18th of the season) that cut Colorado's deficit to 3-1, the Avalanche began to attack.
Roughly ten minutes after that goal, Past Stastny followed up with his 20th goal of the season to trim Phoenix's lead to just a single goal with a few minutes remaining. The Coyotes finally tightened up the strings at that point, though, avoiding an embarrassing breakdown in front of the home fans.
Showing an aggressiveness that was absent in the first period, the Avalanche got 16 shots on goal during the period. The Avalanche had a clear advantage in shots on goal during the game, 41-25, but none of that mattered when they couldn't find the back of the goal during the first two periods.
For more coverage, visit our Avalanche blog Mile High Hockey and our Coyotes blog Five For Howling.